Were warnings ignored before death of 34 Vaishno Devi pilgrims? Panel formed to find out

During a visit to flood-hit areas of Jammu city on Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had questioned why the board had not stopped the yatra before the landslide despite a warning having been issued.

“We will have to talk about it later. When we knew about the weather, should we not have taken certain steps to save those lives? The weather warning had come to us a few days ago,” Abdullah had said.

He further asked, “Why were these people on the track? Why were they not stopped? Why were they not moved to a safe place? This has to be discussed later. We feel sorrow over the loss of precious lives.”

The ruling National Conference’s additional general secretary and former minister, Ajay Sadhotra, had demanded a fast-tracked judicial inquiry into the “avoidable tragic death” of the pilgrims.

Pointing out that the catastrophe could have been avoided with timely precautionary measures, he said that it is “not merely an act of nature but a grim reminder of the administration’s and Shri Mata Vashino Devi Shrine Board’s failure to act with foresight”.

The board, which monitors the pilgrimage to the Trikuta Hills, rejected the allegations.

‘Unpredictable, unforeseen’

In a press statement issued late Thursday evening, it said the cloudburst on August 26 was unexpected.

The statement said, “It was unpredictable and unforeseen from any count. No such event of landslide has ever been recorded in this area in the past.”

It said the location of the incident was near Inderprastha Bhojanalaya on the old track — “one of the safest locations on the track”. However, it said, nature’s fury struck in the form of a sudden, severe cloudburst on this stretch of around 50 metres only.

Alleging that a few media reports were creating an impression that the yatra was allowed to proceed in disregard of weather advisories and at the expense of pilgrims’ safety, the board claimed that every reasonable precaution was taken. “The unfortunate cloudburst resulting in loss of precious lives was not humanly foreseeable and was thus, beyond anyone’s anticipation or control.”

The statement also said the board’s Disaster Management Task Force immediately responded in close coordination with District Administration, J&K Police, CRPF, Army, NDRF, SDRF, and volunteers, launching swift evacuation and relief operations.

The board also said that the weather conditions were clear and conducive for the yatra as of August 26 morning until around 10 am, by which time the yatra had proceeded normally. Even helicopter services were operating seamlessly during that time, it said.

The new track between Katra and Ardhkuwari (through Tarakote), which is susceptible to landslides and weather-related disruptions, had already been closed since August 24 in the interest of pilgrim safety. The old track, which is generally considered safe and not prone to landslides or shooting stones, was kept open for pilgrim movement.

A social media post by the IMD’s Srinagar Centre on August 25 had warned of “extremely heavy” rain in eight of the 10 districts of Jammu province on August 26, including Reasi, where Katra town and the Trikuta Hills are located.

It was in view of this warning that the Directorate of School Education, Jammu, had ordered the closure of all government and private schools across Jammu province on August 26.